


In This Twilight

by beggar_always



Category: Psych
Genre: Angst, Community: psychflashfic, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-09
Updated: 2011-03-09
Packaged: 2017-10-16 19:44:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/168689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beggar_always/pseuds/beggar_always
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlton considers that he's living in Shawn's shadow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In This Twilight

**Author's Note:**

> For the psychflashfic (on LJ) Challenge #21: Songspiration.
> 
> This hit me while I was listening to "Cosmic Love" by Florence + the Machine. Somehow, I decided it needed to be a theme song for Shawn and Carlton. So...here you go. Think of it being set vaguely Season 2-ish.

The world is black and white and Carlton Lassiter has never known any other way of looking at it.

…until Shawn Spencer started insinuating himself into every little bit of his dichromatic life.

Now, suddenly, Carlton's world of black and white isn't good enough anymore. Now Carlton _notices_ where he doesn't fit. In the wake of Spencer and every spark of life he's brought into the station, Lassiter desperately _wants_ to shine a little brighter.

But Shawn shines like the sun, a beacon in a dreary workplace that's so often filled with the worst of people. And Carlton has so long been that imposing figure of gloom…always so much more the black than the white…

Carlton wants, so much, not to be the one on the margins. Not when Spencer makes the spotlight look so easy.

Carlton has never allowed himself much time for introspection. The results have usually required drowning by large amounts of scotch. But Carlton's out of distractions. Victoria's ignored his calls for months. Berry blamed him when she had to transfer and O'Hara's still too terrified of being compared to Berry to want to spend any free time with her partner. Lassiter had always gotten along better with the older crowd of detectives at the SBPD…and the last of them had retired before Carlton had even made head detective.

His colleagues call him a workaholic to his face; obsessive behind his back. They all know he sits at his desk late into the night, annoying the night shift and making the custodians nervous.

No one else ever ventures over to his side of the Bullpen on his late nights. Lassiter's solitude is nearly always absolute. A year ago, he would have preferred it that way. As it is, there's a thrill of something like anticipation in his chest when he hears footsteps approaching.

It's somehow both surprising and not to find Shawn standing across the desk from him when Lassiter finally looks up. They stare at each other for a long moment, neither speaking. There's something about Shawn that's achingly familiar to Carlton at this moment. Some sense of a man unsure of his welcome.

Still not speaking, Shawn grabs the closest chair and sits, reaching out to pull the nearest case file closer for inspection. If the Bullpen had been anything but empty, Carlton would have threatened the other man with all sorts of bodily harm. But, Carlton knows, if the Bullpen was anything but empty, Shawn would not be calmly examining case notes, looking every bit the logical detective.

Shawn looks up then, meeting Lassiter's gaze over the top of the file folder. Carlton considers, just for a moment, that maybe Shawn lives within his own shadow just as much as Lassiter lives in his.

Carlton turns his attention back to the file he's been looking over all evening - a cold case he knows he can crack. He thinks, briefly, about asking Spencer for his opinion, but there's something soothing in this non-speaking moment between them. Silence has never been unbearable for Carlton so long as he's had company.

/end


End file.
